Larry Page sees 'tragic' future for Google

A story in which any number of Mae West quotations can be applied: "I speak two languages, Body and English Google." Or, "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly." Or, "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."

Larry Page is on a mission to keep Google in the fast lane when it comes to growing the already ubiquitous business online.

The company's second-time-around CEO since April 2011 was speaking with Google chairman and previous chief Eric Schmidt at the firm's Zeitgest confab yesterday.

Both men stumbled over Google's early history, with Page at one point admitting that he couldn't recall the tough days when the 13-year-old company was trying to work out how to pay the bills to keep the operation running.

The video is entertaining mainly because it brilliantly demonstrates how the dynamic between prodigy Page and papa Schmidt works.

Beyond that the 45-minute chat on stage proved a very cosy affair, with the best bit coming when Page told the audience that the biggest threat to Google's success is, well, Google.

Schmidt then intercepted to say that "Large companies are their own worst enemy". His comment was in direct reference to a Chocolate Factory memo penned by Page when he became Google's boss earlier this year.

"Companies correlate on decision-making and speed," Page added.

"Of decision-making, there are basically no companies that have good slow decisions. There are only companies that have good fast decisions... as companies get bigger they tend to slow down decision-making, and I think that's pretty tragic." ®